Noted Orator
Miss Cornelius, as she was referred to at the time, came to be a highly-sought after lecturer. She booked speaking engagements at churches and clubs on topics including:
- “Life of Girl in India,”
- “How Christianity Changes a Hindoo [sic] Life,”
- “What Americans Can Do for India,”
- “India and Missionaries, ” and
- on the caste system in India.
She spoke to the Travelers Club at the Fort Pitt Hotel, to the New England Colony, and as part of a presentation at the Sarah Heinz Settlement House. A report of the Pelletreau Scholarship Committee included the following discussion of her lectures:
“She is most loyal to the P.C.W. and considers it her home in every sense of the word and is always ready to tell others in her public speaking of her loyalty and love which I am sure will increase with years. She has larger opportunity than other students to visit other colleges both here and in the East and always thinks that this is the best of all. In her public speaking she has a unique opportunity of making this known, which she always improves as far as courtesy permits.”[7]
Classmates, likewise, noted her popularity as a lecturer and reported on her many speaking engagements in the student newspaper.
Over the years, Chatham hosted members of her family as campus speakers including sister E.S. Appasamy in 1914, who spoke on "Women of India,"[8] nephew Stephen Krishmayya in 1927, who was in the city as a delegate to a conference on Christian work.[9] Chatham also hosted a visit from Miss Eleanor McDougall, president of the Women’s Christian college of Madras, with which Asirvatham (nee Cornelius) was affiliated.[10]